This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

He started in politics, working for state Senator (now Attorney General) Eric Schneiderman, then joined Valerie Berlin, Schneiderman's chief of staff, on Mark Green's mayoral campaign.

After some more campaigns, the duo in 2005 founded BerlinRosen. Crain's reports:

In just six-plus years, their communications consultancy has grown into a team of 20 strategists that is in the middle of campaigns shaping public policy in the city, the state and, increasingly, the country. Its revenues have increased every quarter as the firm has expanded well beyond its roots on the left.

Mr. Rosen is a top strategist for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and real estate titan Bruce Ratner. Recent clients include the nationwide group Rock the Vote and a coalition of Brookfield Properties and tenants looking to buy Stuyvesant Town. Perhaps his most impressive victory came last year in helping Cornell University win the mayor’s tech-campus competition.

Potential synergy

With Silver, Schneiderman, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on board with BerlinRosen, among others, Forest City has to like the synergy. The firm also represented ACORN.